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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 116 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  4. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  14. This piece is in a major ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. That must've been a ________________.
  23. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  24. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. degree — an amount
  3. key — the most important part
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. fork — in a road
  9. spring — the season
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. spring — a coil
  13. key — for a lock
  14. key — in music
  15. degree — from a university
  16. spring — of water
  17. kick — in football
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. cold — not warm
  21. degree — temperature
  22. rush — a thrill
  23. stick — to attach or keep to
  24. fork — to eat with

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com